Typical digital content providers allow users to access digital content on a file-by-file basis. For example, if a user wishes to listen to an audio book, the user pays for and downloads a digital copy of the audio book. Other types of digital content (e.g., music, movies) can be accessed in a similar manner. For users that access digital content at or above a certain rate, providers of digital content often provide reduced prices compared to users that access digital content below the certain rate. The overhead involved in tracking accounts for multiple users with multiple pricing arrangements on a file-by-file basis can be complex. Additionally, per-unit pricing of content requires a user to make a purchase decision for each new content item, which can inhibit a user from accessing digital content, and can prevent a user from forming habits of accessing content regularly.
Subscription-based World Wide Web pages provide unlimited access for a predetermined period of time (e.g., month, year) based on a user's account balance. Such subscription-based content providers typically provide current events (e.g., news, sports, entertainment) that are interesting to users for a relatively short period of time. One problem with applying subscription-based access to long-term digital content (e.g., audio books, movies, music) is that a user can download content during a purchased predetermined period of time and consume the content over an extended period of time. The subscription cost of subscription-based access to long-term digital content would have to be relatively high for the content provider to remain profitable.